A race that gets under your skin: Sailors line up for the 10th Melbourne Osaka Yacht Race
by Melbourne Osaka Media 26 Oct 22:50 PDT
A warm farewell from Duncan Hine on Allive as he starts the 2025 Melbourne Osaka Yacht Race © Al Dillon
With entries for the 10th Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race set to be capped, more than 125 expressions of interest from 12 countries signal strong international demand for a race that stays with sailors long after they cross the finish line.
For some sailors, the Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race is a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. For others, completing it only sparks a new ambition: to do it again, and to do it better.
As preparations build for the 10th edition in 2030 and a Q&A roadshow gets under way, entries are anticipated to open in early 2027. Those on the expression-of-interest list will have the first opportunity to confirm their entry.
Having won the 2025 race, Duncan Hine, skipper of the Reichel Pugh 66 yacht Alive, is ready to take on the challenge again. For Hine, the prospect of another race is as much about refining the experience as it is about chasing the finish line and having another shot at the race record.
"It's that once-in-a-lifetime race," Hine says. "Once done, you think of things you could do better next time."
"I've been thinking about how I could make further modifications to make it easier. Alive is a big boat, so I'd set up with a different sail selection which will make it simpler, an electric traveller so the helm can adjust without letting go of the helm, add in a reefing headsail, change the size of the headsail to help handle the power issues," with Hine adding, "some changes are already under way, which means we can sail now with less crew."
"For some, they spend a lot of time thinking about doing it, want to do it, but that's as far as they go," Hine says. "This is the race it doesn't happen in other long-distance races that you can set up your own seaworthy boat and take on the race without specialist boats, systems or teams. If you have a seaworthy boat, feel safe in your boat, the race is an option for anyone."
His enthusiasm captures something distinctive about this 5,000 nautical mile offshore adventure; the experience doesn't necessarily end when the boat reaches Osaka.
Looking for a different style of yacht race is Jeremy Walton, who served as a Duty Race Director for the 2025 edition.
"I'm looking to sail in races that offer intrigue and a different angle. I've done a lot of sailing, windward-leeward and all the local offshore races in the past. Walton explains.
The Melbourne to Osaka fits that ambition. It is a non-stop, unassisted, double-handed ocean race spanning the length of the western Pacific, demanding that two sailors manage their boat, their sleep, their sail changes and their decision-making over an extended passage.
Walton's experience as Race Director also gives him a particular appreciation of what competitors face.
"I feel that I have an understanding of the joy, the exhaustion and also the jubilation that competitors go through"
Walton recalls the camaraderie among competitors and the banter between crews during reporting schedules, saying that "while he enjoyed the connection and aimed to make the reporting skeds entertaining, I wished I was out there too sailing." Even when off duty, he found himself following the race.
"I don't like to retire," Walton says, reflecting on the determination that drives competitors to keep going. He recalls the motto "Quitting is forever", which inspired Kevin Le Poidevin to get back into the race in 2025.
"It's determination that resonates with me."
For Walton, the choice will be a "slow and more comfortable boat", joining Greg Phelan aboard his Endurance 44 yacht Salacia.
The race is decided not simply by which boat reaches Osaka first, but by corrected elapsed time, with competitors setting off at staggered intervals.
Six competitors with Japanese connections are already on the expression-of-interest list, waiting for the opportunity to enter the race.
Dr Keiichirou Morimura, a competitor in the 2018 edition from Osaka and Commodore of the host club, Hokko Osaka Yacht Club, says the race's value extends well beyond the sailing itself, creating friendships, broadening horizons and opening up unexpected opportunities.
"I became an ocean medical trainer after the race and managed to incorporate my sailing hobby into my work," says Dr Morimura.
For him, the achievement begins long before the starting gun.
"By the time I had arrived in Melbourne and set off for the start, 90 percent of the work was done. The race being the final 10 per cent."
What he hopes people remember most is the race's accessibility and the passion that brings competitors together from around the world.
"It's an international ocean race that anyone can enter. You don't need to be a professional or an athlete. You just need the passion to do it."
That sense of achievement, crossing the finish line with the feeling of "I've done it" or simply that you are finally home, awaits those who take up the challenge of sailing double-handed and non-stop from Melbourne to Osaka. Whatever their motivation, they become part of the race's history, joining an exclusive group of sailors who have taken on one of ocean sailing's most extraordinary challenges, an event that takes place only every four to five years.
"An expression of interest is not a commitment to enter. It places prospective competitors on the list for the first opportunity to take up an entry when invitations are offered," explains Cyrus Allen, Chair of the Melbourne to Osaka Organising Committee for the 2030 race.
For those who have dreamed of making the passage, or who know from experience that one attempt is never quite enough, now is the time to put their name forward.
Add your name to the expression-of-interest list to be among the first offered the opportunity to enter the 10th Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race.
Expression of Interest can be made here
Preliminary Notice of Race here
Meet past competitors at the upcoming Question and Answer sessions around Australia:
- Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania: 9th November 26 at 19:00
- Cruising Yacht Club of Australia: 12th November 26 at 18:30
- Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron: 27th November 26 at 19:00
- Hobsons Bay Yacht Club: 27th November 26 at 19:00
- Port Stephens Yacht Club Community Hub Fremantle Sailing Club
- Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Hobsons Bay Yacht Club
- SA: check back soon for the date in early in 2027